


Blind Date

by fortunehasgivenup



Series: prompt fills [7]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blind Date, F/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22908469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: Stan just really thinks that Beth would hit it off with one of his co-workers, Rio. Ruby's not so sure.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio, Ruby Hill/Stan Hill
Series: prompt fills [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608919
Comments: 28
Kudos: 235





	Blind Date

**Author's Note:**

> lilliloves said: Rio is friends with Stan and Stan and Ruby want to set him up with Beth! Double date maybe??
> 
> Working from that, I’m imagining this happening like pre-canon but with some events (like the divorce) having already happened. So Stan is working security at the mall, but he’s taken on another job at a bar/club to make extra money, which is how he knows Rio.

“You want to set him up with Beth? My friend, Elizabeth Boland?” Ruby looks at Stan like he’s grown an extra head.

“No, see, I got it all figured out,” Stan says, sitting at the kitchen island and stealing Ruby’s spoon so he can have some of her yogurt parfait. “They’re both super obsessive about everything. I picked him up at his place and went up to use the bathroom. His closet was colour coded, Ruby. Even his son’s room was neat. I’m pretty sure that the stuff animals were alphabetized somehow.”

“Beth’s not that bad!” Ruby defends her best friend, then considers. “Okay, you may have a point. But wouldn’t setting them up just make it worse?”

Stan shakes his head. “They’re obsessive about different stuff. I saw Beth twitching like her head was gonna explode last time someone messed up her schedule, but I’ve also seen her let her kids give her hugs while they’re covered in mud. Rio’s the opposite.”

“They would drive each other up the wall.” Ruby takes back her spoon. “And then Beth will never speak to you again.”

“No, trust me. It’ll work,” Stan insists. 

—————————————

Beth narrows her eyes at Stan. “What is it?”

“What’s what?” Stan asks innocently.

“Last time you looked like that, I’m pretty sure I got alcohol poisoning,” Beth says. “I’m not going to another one of your church events.”

Stan laughs. “I got a friend.”

“Congratulations,” Beth deadpans. “We’re so proud.”

It’s Stan’s turn to glare and Beth cracks a smile. He’s like the friendliest, kindest person that she’s ever met in her life.

Ruby isn’t meeting her in the eye. “I think I’m gonna go check that my children aren’t doing anything dumb,” she says all of a sudden and races out of the room, leaving Beth and Stan.

“Now I’m really suspicious,” Beth sighs.

Stan clasps his hands together. “I think you should go out with him.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on!” Stan protests. “I think you’d get along great.”

“No!” Beth repeats. “I’m not -“ ready, she almost says. But that’s not exactly true. Sometimes she feels very much ready to get back to dating. And then she remembers that the only person she’s ever dated is Dean and the last first date she went on was in the early 90s.

“He’s got a son, Marcus,” Stan breezes right past her protests. “He’s the sweetest kid and if that doesn’t tell you how great Rio is, I don’t know what will.”

“How do you even know him?” Beth asks.

Stan shifts a little in his seat. “Work.”

Beth waits for more.

“Look,” Stan says, “come out to dinner with us. Then you don’t have to deal with the first date stuff.”

“No, we just have to deal with being third and fourth wheel to the Stan and Ruby love train.”

Stan looks at her. “You need more than two wheels to be a train, Beth. We’re more like a bike.”

Beth rolls her eyes, but she feels herself giving in.

“We’ll keep it casual, somewhere with drinks, some food. Come on, when’s the last time you spent time with adults without kids around? And I’m not talking about Housewives night with Annie and Ruby,” Stan clarifies. “When’s the last time you met somebody new?”

She thins her mouth into a line. “If he’s awful, I’m never speaking to you again.”

—————————————

Rio doesn’t say anything. Well, he lets his eyebrow do the talking for him.

Stan leans on the bar. “Come on, man,” he cajoles. “I’ve seen you turn down a whole lot of women that other guys would have been happy to get to know. You’re getting tired of this crowd. Let me set you up.”

“With your wife’s friend.”

“Yes.” Stan nods. “Her name’s Beth. She’s been divorced for just over a year now, has four kids, and she’s great. I think you’d hit it off.”

“You think we’d hit it off.”

“Look, if you’re just gonna repeat shit I say, I’m just gonna say yes and assume you agree with me,” Stan says. 

It’s been a while since Rio’s been on a date. Not that he’s starved for company. He’s got plenty of that, but Stan wasn’t wrong when he said that Rio turns down a whole lot of people.

They’ve just started to seem so…young. Even the ones that were his age. 

Stan must see him starting to consider it, because he keeps pressing.

“Come out with us. I was thinking we’d try out that new place with the stupid logo that’s like,” Stan holds up his hands to mime the upside down triangle he’s talking about. “They’ve got food, drinks, maybe some dancing.”

Rio looks at Stan. “Why you pushing this?” he asks.

“Because I mean it when I say I think you’ll get along.” Stan sighs. “And you’re both lonely and grumpy as shit right now, so I can’t do my longterm plan of slowly introducing you two like a couple of skittish horses.”

He can’t help it. Rio laughs at the image of Stan nudging him and a woman towards each other. Or maybe Ruby would be there, coaxing her friend forward. 

“Fine,” Rio gives in. “But if she’s awful, I’m gonna make your life miserable.”

Stan scoffs. “Sure you will.”

—————————————

Beth tries on the dress and tugs it this way and that, trying to make it work.

“No,” Annie says. “Next.”

“Annie!” Beth whirls around to see her sister has pushed aside the curtain and joined her in the change room.

“You’re going on a date, not trying to get a job at a nunnery,” Annie says, unzipping the dress. “Now try my pick.”

Beth already knows that’s gonna be a no. It’s lime green and the bust is way too low, but she also knows Annie’s not going to give it a rest, so she pulls that on.

“That looks great!” Annie claps, then pulls aside the curtain so Ruby can see.

Ruby looks up from her phone. “Take that off and burn it,” she tells Beth. “Try mine next.”

It goes on like that for three more dresses before Beth finally throws up her hands in defeat.

“Nothing works!” Beth said, pulling her sweater back on and pulling the curtain back. Ben has rejoined them, a bag at his feet.

“Looking good, Aunt Beth,” Ben says.

She gives him a look. “I already own these,” she huffs. “I was wearing them when we got here.”

Ben grins. “Not going so good?”

“No.”

“It’s because she’s not listening to my advice,” Annie chimes in.

Ben turns his head towards his mother and gives her a look. “Mom, there’s no way you’re giving her advice she needs. You’re picking out clothes you like.”

“Yeah, because they’re great.”

Ben shakes his head. “Did you pick out any of them?” he asks Beth. She reaches back into the change room and holds up two that she picked. Ben makes a face. “Are you going on a date or to a funeral?”

She sighs and hangs them back up.

“Come on,” Ben says. “Let’s go get a cinnamon bun.”

“I need to get something to -“

“Cinnamon bun,” Ben cuts her off. “Remember what Tim Gunn says?”

“Make it work.”

Ben makes a face that says, fair enough, then shakes his head. “You’ve been in the monkey house too long. You’ve stopped noticing how terrible everything smells.”

She has no memory of Tim Gunn ever saying anything like that, but Ben coaxes them out of the store and to the food court.

“It’s because you’re picking clothes you think other people will like,” Ben says after taking a few bites of his cinnamon roll. “Then you’re uncomfortable in them.”

Beth looks at her nephew. She can see Annie and Ruby doing the same.

“Believe me, I get it,” Ben goes on. “But you have to wear something you feel happy in.”

Beth swallows back emotion, reaching out to squeeze Ben’s free hand. He smiles at her, then seems to unhinge his jaw to take a massive bite of the cinnamon bun.

“You like florals.” Beth turns to Ruby, who goes on, “You love wearing florals. We were steering you away from them earlier. But maybe we should have been trying to find the right floral.”

“There is no such thing,” Annie mutters. “But ok, he’s got a point. Because I made a genius.”

Ben laughs. “Sure, mom.”

“Hey!” Annie knocks her shoulder against Ben’s. “I did!”

He shakes his head, but he’s smiling as he does it. 

————————————————

Rio studies the woman standing next to Stan’s wife, Ruby. He’s only met her a couple of times when she’s come to drop off dinners for Stan, but she’d made him laugh. It had made him almost wistful, watching the two of them interact on those visits. 

Which is why he’d agreed to this in the first place, despite his initial instinct to say no.

The woman, Beth, is facing away from him, so he can only see her back and the fall of her hair. It’s reddish-blonde and bounces with her laughter. Stan catches sight of Rio and raises his hand.

He loses sight of them as he steps through the cluster of people between him and the table, so he doesn’t catch a glimpse of the woman until he’s standing next to the table.

“Hey man,” Stan greets him. “You remember Ruby?” Rio nods. “This is Beth.”

She holds out her hand for him to shake.

“Beth, this is Rio.”

“Hi,” she says, a little shyly as they shake hands.

“Hey.”

She’s wearing a blue dress with little flowers all over it. It’s something that should look almost too sweet, but the way that her cleavage shows at the v of the neck makes sure it isn’t. She smiles at him and Rio starts feeling a whole lot more glad he came out tonight.

————————————

“No way!” Beth protests, throwing a balled up napkin at Stan. “Don’t you dare.”

Stan just drops the napkin back on the table and ignores her. “It’s December, right?” he says to Rio, who’s grinning as he takes a sip of his gin and tonic. “Cold as hell. So, I’m sitting in the house, waiting for Ruby to come home. She’s running a little late, but when these two get to talking, that’s nothing strange.”

“Stan!” Beth covers her face.

“I hear a weird noise coming from the side door. At this time, we’d literally just moved into the place and the old owners had a doggie door that we hadn’t had a chance to replace yet.”

Rio, guessing where this is going, guffaws.

Stan goes on, speaking with exaggerated gravity. “I grab this ugly ass vase that Ruby’s aunt gave us as a wedding gift. Holding it up like I’m gonna have to knock out an intruder. Flip on the hall light and there’s Beth, head and shoulders already through the doggy door. But she can’t see up, so all she can see are my legs and she starts yelling to Ruby, “Wrong house! Wrong house!” and trying to wriggle back out.”

Despite herself, Beth is laughing too. She can still remember the panic at seeing a pair of legs, convinced that they were trying to get into the wrong house and that someone lived there. She hadn’t realized it was Stan until he started to laugh.

“What Stan’s forgetting to mention,” she turns to Rio, “is that he dropped the vase on purpose after that.”

Rio grins at her. “You get stuck in the door?”

“No!” Beth says, shaking her head. “I did not!”

“You sure?”

“Yes! It was a big doggie door,” Beth tells him, tossing back the rest of her bourbon.

Rio leans towards her and Beth is reminded that at some point, he had slung his arm over the back of the booth. “Another?” he asks.

Beth flushes. “Sure.”

———————————————

Ruby and Stan have gotten up from the table to head to the small dance floor, leaving Rio and Beth to talk.

To his surprise, Rio’s enjoying himself. She’s funny and smart, pretty too.

“Me and Marcus just went to Legoland,” he tells her, showing her a couple of photos on his phone. 

Beth leans against his arm to get a better look at the screen. “Oh, that’s so sweet! He looks a lot like you.”

“Yeah,” Rio agrees. “Hopefully he’ll be less trouble though.”

She laughs, sitting back again, but not shifting down the bench. “That’s what I keep hoping with mine, but I’m starting to think that it’s in vain.”

“They breakin’ into people’s houses?” he teases.

She groans, head in her hands. “I’m gonna kill Stan.”

“Nah, don’t do that,” he protests. “I’d have to re-do the schedule.”

Her laughter comes back, bringing a smile to Rio’s face and when she looks up, her blue eyes are sparkling.

He leans towards her. “What do you say we ditch these two?”

She bites her lip, shyness returning, although maybe there’s a hint of coyness to it now. “And do what?”

“Whatever you want, Elizabeth.”

“In that case,” she slides a little closer again, voice lowering, “there’s an ice cream place a couple blocks away that I’ve been dying to try.”

He lifts an eyebrow, but nods. He can do that. “I’ll just take care of the bill,” he says.

“I’ll tell Ruby we’re leaving.”

Rio nods. “Meet you at the door.”

It doesn’t take long to hand over enough cash to cover dinner, drinks, and anything else Stan and Ruby might order. Beth’s waiting for him at the front door.

“Ice cream?” he asks, holding the door open for her.

She doesn’t say anything until he’s followed her out, when she turns to face him and tilts her head back.

“I changed my mind,” she says. Rio’s about to say that it’s fine, he can take her home, when she steps closer to him. “I was kind of hoping you’d kiss me.”

She barely finishes saying it before Rio does exactly that.

“In that case,” she pants when he breaks the kiss, “let’s go back to yours.”

Rio takes her bottom lip between his and bites lightly. “Sounds even better.”

———————————————

“Rio smiled at work today.”

Ruby looks up from chopping tomatoes. “Huh?”

“Rio smiled at work today,” Stan repeats, “like for a prolonged period. And, he was late.”

“Oh?”

Stan grins. “He’s never late. Pretty sure he’s never been late. You hear anything from Beth?”

“She’s dodging my questions, aside from letting me know she got home safe,” Ruby said with a roll of her eyes. “Which means something happened.”

Stan takes a seat at the counter. “So you’re saying I did good?”

Ruby gives him a look, but quickly breaks. “Yeah, you might have done good.”

“Think they’ll name their firstborn after me?” he asks.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Stanley.”

He just grins as he starts peeling garlic.

**Author's Note:**

> In an attempt to make myself write things that aren't always 10k+, I'm taking prompts on tumblr (or on here if you prefer). They will all be unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine and I'll be uploading them as a series rather than chapters because seeing that 1/? is stressful. I'm still working on all my other stuff as well, so most of those should be updating soon. As always, if there's something you think should be warned for, please let me know.


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